Sensitive files stolen from Hazel Blears’s office

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Sensitive files stolen from Hazel Blears’s office

By Mark Pack | Tue 17th June 2008 - 3:53 pm

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A computer stolen from Hazel Blears’s constituency office has turned out to contain sensitive government information on defence and extremism. As the BBC reports, it isn’t yet clear if this means Hazel Blears broke any rules on the handling of government information, but given the rules against holding such information on personal computers, for example, it is hard to see how the data could have ended up on the computer without someone breaking some rules.

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6 Comments

Diversity 17th Jun '08 - 5:37pm

The translation of the “departmental spokesman”‘s remaks is simple. The computer contained “Confidential” and “Restricted” documents which should not have been there.
It also contained some indisceet material that was not classified.

I am unable to offer a translation of what the departmental spokesman carefully did not say.
Bernard Salmon 17th Jun '08 - 7:40pm

When she was a Home Office Minister, Hazel Blears chaired a working group on Cyber Trust and Crime Prevention, and wrote a preface for the executive summary which the group produced, so she’s well aware of the issues surrounding computer security.
Jennie 17th Jun '08 - 8:04pm

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha talk about hoist by her own petard!

* sits back and waits for Fate to take his revenge on her for schadenfreude *
crewegwyn 18th Jun '08 - 11:21am

It’ll all be the fault of a junior/ temporary/ casual/ contract/ illegally-present-in-the-UK member of staff, who has since left the employment/ service/ country/ planet, and no further action would be appropriate.

Mark my words.
Andy M 18th Jun '08 - 2:54pm

While Labour MP’s are doing their best to continue an incompetant run of losing sensitive documents, the Tories have still got their snouts in the trough filching expenses:

Latest Tory sleaze here
“Two Tory MPs, Sir Nicholas Winterton and his wife Ann, were in “unequivocal” breach of Parliamentary rules by claiming over £165,000 in rent on a property which they had bought outright, MPs have concluded.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4164118.ece

If he actually sacked all the sleazebags in his party, Cameron wouldn’t have many MP’s or MEP’s left.
Andrew McLean 18th Jun '08 - 7:04pm

The government’s Protective Marking Scheme classifies sensitive documents in four categories according to the damage that would be done if they were improperly disclosed. The categories are (in decreasing level of sensitivity) Top Secret, Secret, Confidential and Restricted.

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/foi/reading_room/topic/~/media/assets/www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/foi/classifications%20pdf.ashx

Saying that the computer didn’t have any Secret or Top Secret material on it invites us the infer that it had Confidential material on it. What does that mean? Well the definition of “Confidential” is:

“The compromise of this information or material would be likely: materially to damage diplomatic relations (i.e. cause formal protest or other sanction); to prejudice individual security or liberty; to cause damage to the operational effectiveness or security of UK or allied forces or the effectiveness of valuable security or intelligence operations; to work substantially against national finances or economic and commercial interests; substantially to undermine the financial viability of major organisations; to impede the investigation or facilitate the commission of serious crime; to impede seriously the development or operation of major government policies; to shut down or otherwise substantially disrupt significant national operations.”